Tiger Woods’ personal crisis shows little signs of receding – fresh revelations about his “transgressions” keep on being published and his mother-in-law was briefly taken to hospital on Tuesday. So it is not surprising that there are hints of his sponsors’ support wavering.
Although companies that have affiliated themselves with the golfer’s name – including Nike, EA Sports, Gillette and NetJets – insist they still have faith in him, PepsiCo has dropped a Gatorade drink named after him.
PepsiCo insists that the decision to drop Gatorade Tiger is unrelated to the recent scandal but sponsors must wonder when the scandal engulfing their brand partner will recede.
In theory, of course, none of Woods’ transgressions have any bearing on the golfing achievements for which he is best known and which attracts these sponsors. In practice, however, they do tarnish his image and present his partners with tough choices.
Take Accenture, the accounting firm, which has an extensive branding relationship with Woods. It is difficult to pass through an international airport without seeing Accenture posters featuring Woods and bearing gnomic mottos about how its clients can “be a Tiger”.
The trouble is that some of these posters can now be read with a double meaning relating to Woods’ personal travails, which is a problem. Even if a company tries to stand behind an errant star, there comes a point when its own brand gets affected.
The bigger point is that global sports stars such as Woods and Roger Federer have brands that extend beyond sporting prowess to their personal qualities. That brings them money from companies with no attachment to sports, but it also makes them financially vulnerable to scandal.
Update: Accenture has now ended its marketing relationship with Woods and removed from its site the images of posters to which I earlier linked.
